Computer help thread

[denial]

Thank you Tina ..

anyway for those who like to read articles
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...mn_programs_dc


Programs: Stripping Adware/Spyware from PC Can Be Tricky
Sat Feb 7, 2:35 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Gene Emery

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Reuters) - One of the biggest challenges a computer owner can face is getting rid of adware or spyware, programs that can sneak onto your PC when you agree to download free utility software from the Web.

In addition to monitoring your activity on the Internet, adware and spyware can lock you into an unwanted home page and swamp you with pop-up advertisements.

Removal can be difficult because the designers of such programs often try to keep them out of sight on your PC.

Most don't show up on the "Add/Remove Programs" list in the Windows control panel. They seldom offer an "Uninstall" option in the Windows "Programs" list; in fact, they're seldom listed at all.

Even when you identify them, some adware programs can't be removed directly because they are tied to other unrelated utility programs you may have wanted.

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, there are ways to get rid of the programs. The first step: Go to sites such as http://PestPatrol.com or http://WebRoot.com and run a free scan of your computer. They list any adware/spyware they see, but they do not tell you how to remove it.

The site http://PCPitStop.com, has been very aggressive in taking on adware and spyware. And, although it identifies fewer programs than PestPatrol and WebRoot, it does a much better job of explaining how to clean your computer.

Another way of removing adware is to find its Web site, a plan that can be easy if your home page has been hijacked. Some of those sites offer an "Uninstall" program for their software, though it may be a challenge to find it. Look for an FAQ (frequently asked questions) link.

Unfortunately, such uninstall programs don't always undo all the changes made to your PC. An adware program called i-lookup had a downloadable program to uninstall its software, but the i-lookup-sponsored Web pages listed in the "Favorites" section of Internet Explorer remained. I had to click on "Organize Favorites" and manually delete them.

A better bet for scouring your hard disk clean may be independent programs. The ones I found worked pretty well from all sorts of places (like the Windows registry).

The best bargain was "Ad-aware," popular with many readers, as I learned from the e-mail I got after last week's column.

"Ad-aware 6.0," available to home users for free from http://www.LavaSoftUSA.com, is easy to use. It lets you sort programs and files by type or adware company, so you can see the program it is proposing to delete. It eliminated annoyances such as a toolbar cluttering up Internet Explorer that kept returning even after I told Explorer not to display it.

"Ad-aware" tracked down traces of adware I thought I had removed, and eliminated two viruses that had gotten on the PC because the owner had not kept his virus checker up to date.

However, "Ad-aware" does not automatically watch for adware unless you pay $27 for an upgrade. You must run it regularly and check for updates.

Several readers said they run "Spybot-Search & Destroy," available for free, at http://safer-networking.org.

I have less confidence in "Spy Sweeper" from http://WebRoot.com, which you can try for free or buy for $30. It's easy to use and updates automatically, but offers few details about the adware it finds.

During the cleaning process, "Spy Sweeper" told me I was running other programs I needed to close, but didn't say which ones or how to go about it. It also said I had Internet Explorer running when I didn't (at least as far as I could tell). Such statements don't inspire confidence.

When I asked "Pest Patrol" to clean up a PC whose owner had already manually eliminated or disabled some of the unwanted programs, it found plenty of adware-associated remnants. But it got hung up in the decontamination process. Fortunately, the program displayed the folder that seemed to be causing problems. Because the folder was named Claria, after the adware company, I quit out of "Pest Patrol," opened Windows Explorer, and sent the whole Claria folder to the Recycle Bin.

When I reran "Pest Control," it cleaned everything else out smoothly. You can try "Pest Patrol" for free. The full version, with a year of updates, is $40. The license costs $20 a year.

If you're bothered by adware, but you want to keep using the "free" programs that come with it, "StopZilla," available from StopZilla.com, may be worth a look. It doesn't try to remove the adware and spyware, but claims to suppress it, by eliminating most of the pop-up windows while letting the "free" programs run freely. It costs $20 per year.


Personally, I'd rather just get rid of it all. Then I would use PanicWare.com's free "Pop-Up Stopper" program, or something comparable, to block most pop-up windows.

A final word: Make it a habit to click "No" whenever a Web site tries to get you to download a "free" program.

(Second of 2 parts)

(Gene Emery is a columnist who covers science and technology. His Internet address is GEmery(at)Cox.net. Any opinions in the column are his alone.)

[denial]

wooo!! Windows Update time again ..have fun!

Who should read this document:
-- Customers who are using Microsoft® Windows®

Impact of vulnerability:
--Remote Code Execution

Maximum Severity Rating:
-- Critical

After patches require reboot:
--YES!!


Multiple Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows

Original release date: February 10, 2004
Last revised: --
Source: US-CERT

Systems Affected

Systems running Microsoft Windows

Overview

Microsoft Windows contains multiple vulnerabilities, the most
serious of which could allow attackers to take control of your
computer.

Description

Microsoft's updated Home User Security Bulletin for February 2004
describes more vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating
system. Microsoft is tracking these issues as Security Update
828028.

It is unclear at this time how many different ways your computer
can be compromised using these vulnerabilities, so we recommend you
apply the updates below as soon as possible. A technical
description of these vulnerabilities is available from US-CERT in
TA04-041A and from Microsoft in MS04-007.

Resolution

Apply a patch

Microsoft has released a home user bulletin describing how to
determine what patches you will need and how to get them. Follow
the procedures outlined in Microsoft's updated Home User Security
Bulletin for February 2004.

For additional information, and to receive updates on this alert,
go to http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/alerts/SA04-041A.html

References

* US-CERT Technical Alert TA04-041A -
<http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-041A.html>

* Microsoft's Updated Home User Security Bulletin for February 2004
-
<http://www.microsoft.com/security/se...s/20040210_win
dows.asp>

* Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-007 -
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sec...n/MS04-007.asp> <--- click here! or IE --> Tools --> Windows Update

* Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 828028: An ASN.1 vulnerability
could allow code execution -
<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=828028>
__________________________________________________ _______________

This document is available from
<http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/alerts/SA04-041A.html>
__________________________________________________ _______________

Copyright 2004 Carnegie Mellon University.

[denial]

Automatically Check Your PC for Infection

http://www.microsoft.com/security/antivirus/mydoom.asp

What You Should Know About the Mydoom Worm Variants: Mydoom.A, Mydoom.B, and Mydoom.C (a.k.a. Doomjuice)
Published: January 27, 2004 |
Updated: February 10, 2004 - 1:30 P.M. Pacific Time



Updated Microsoft Virus Alert Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...ts/Default.asp

[teeny]

Man, I hate updating the OS all the time But thank you, Denial. I better install the thing right away..

[denial]

Tina .. I could post more you know .. LoL ..nah .. just the critical thing. We never know .. once this are announce someone could make virus of this vulnerablilities..

[la aurora]

Oh... thanks queenie for ur help
a) well... for the first question... I know enough about CSS... just wanted to make sure I didn't miss the option of making the dotted border. So seems there's no way to do it for all browsers. I tried {border-style: dotted} before... but as I use IE mostly, it looked exactly like small lines... not what I wanted to get actually *sigh*

b) whuh... I don't like using all those WYSIWYG programms... they give some heavy code usually and most of them doesn't know what IFRAMEs are *sigh* FrontPage has this option... so may be will have to spend some more time trying to figure out the difference between it's code and mine. Sometimes even such useless options as ID change everything.

c) now for layers... well... I've seen ur pages before and I love them all I must say really... u are damn talented, u know? and of course I didn't miss the opportunity to see ur coding No intentions to steal... just pure interest... So everything was pretty clear for me... just this line got my interest:
style="FILTER: chroma (color=#998675). So I asked you what the hell it was about. I said 'layers' coz u use this option with DIV tag

and not... u didn't MESS UP lol u explained everything really well, thank you


Now for D's question Yeah, I finally got my new connection... whuh... I'm glad I did. Still need some time to get used not to disconnect in hurry after opening 15 pages just to read them lol It's something I had to do paying for each minute and having few money left on account... Also need to get used to seeing 100 000 000 bits/sec instead of usual 21 600 and needing 10 seconds instead of usual hour to download 3 MB file LoL But this is somethig I will get used VERY soon I believe As for rains... well... it's not like we are going to have rains here any soon... it's winter still... but today it was snowing hard and everything worked more than ok.

[QueenBee]

sunny poison, pheeew thank god I did a decent explanation. And about this:

style="FILTER: chroma (color=#998675).

It's kind of complicated to explain.. It is to make the iframe transparent. (This tag is part of <iframe> if I'm correct). The background color of the iframe is #998675 and if you add this code *points to quote* it means that that color gets transparent and since the background is that color.. the iframe's background is transparent.
Erm.

Here is the background where I put the iframe just to show you what it looks like. So the iframe is completely transparent.. yeah.

Oh and don't worry.. copy my code if you want, I have nothing against that. For you:

[la aurora]

- they are all for u lil queenie. well... I could give u more of course... just 5 is my fav number lol sorry

Whuh.... coping someone's code is plain boring. I'm the type that needs to do all by herself. But thanks for being so generous

So... chroma and color=#998675 gives me this effect... ok... lol... when I refused to use layers, I was getting same effect with Photoshop and tables. i was just taking the part of the picture and using it as a fixed bg image for IFRAME. looked the same but it's a harder way. I thought I was adopting the site for more browsers this way... not all of them support layers... but if I think again... not all of them support IFRAMEs lol So the effort was kinda useless...

hm... I could just use that ur code.... but well... lol... I'm impossible. I want to know about OTHER filters. I understand U can't know all... just asking in case u do lol

And thanks for ur help once again Oh... damn... 6 roses now... but it's my bro's fav number... so I'll be a good sister at least

[la aurora]

yay! I've found the answer already wasn't an easy task but I did
one more rose for you queenie

[denial]

10 seconds instead of usual hour to download 3 MB

...and those are not enough to logon to your msg? .. .. I just want to complain about tatu breaking off with Ivan issue .. its really depressing me .. no one else will understand.. I need to talk with you ..at least you won't laugh.. well not that you don't laugh .. well at least .. its okay with me if you laugh ... well who said I'm fair? LoL ... .. you know .. you're the .... 'place' ... oh well .. I better off to work now ..and thinking about Lena Kiper [for Lena Kiper ] .. and read Microsoft .. ...

Congratulation on your new connection!! yay!! Have fun like this all over the forum !!


Queenbee .. will you teach me designing website with notepad? for you in advance ..

[denial]

In a sign of the growing diversity of phishing scams, a new e-mail combines social engineering tricks and HTML coding to defraud victims using a keylogging program that attempts to capture banking usernames and passwords.
The latest scam, documented at Codefish Spamwatch, operates via an email with the subject "Police investigation."

------------------------

Hello...

It has come to my attention that you are being under the police investigation.
Is that true? Have you really commited such crimes?

Please read the following article located at:

http : // federalpolice.com : article872 @ 1075686747

or at:

http: // 0100. 035. 0255. 0133

Sincerely,
Your old friend

--------------------------

The URLs are obscured, and actually point to http : // 64. 29. 173. 91, an IP address at the Atlanta ISP Abraxis.net. Concerned e-mail recipients who follow the link encounter the message "SERVER ERROR 550" - which is actually not a server error at all, but an HTML document containing unseen background code that attempts to download a Trojan written in Java.


Posted by richm at 02:26 PM UTC on Feb 16, 2004

More: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/20..._web_page.html

[denial]

News:

16 February 2004

Female virus-writer, Gigabyte, arrested in Belgium, Sophos comments

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/gigabyte.html

ho! ho! .. I dont know... but this girl is HOT! and her virus are cute ..


*back to work* *run virus update*

[QueenBee]

My dear Sunny, thank you for the roses.. I wish I could include many roses for you but then the message won't be posted

Denial, of course I can teach you how to make websites in Notepad. Should I post here or chat or PM?

[haku]

Originally posted by denial
this girl is HOT!

How do you know she's hot? There are no pictures... unless you saw her somewhere else?

[Kappa]

denial, you are completely crazy. No virii is cute. Do you think a little Hard Drive muncher is cute when it turns it to little more than an useless box?

And I didn't see pics of her either.

W32/Coconut-A
Summer 2003
Displays a graphical game where the recipient must throw coconuts at the heads of Belgian hacker, Frans Devaere, and Sophos's Graham Cluley. Each hit ensures that one less file on the recipient's computer will be infected.

Yeah. Very cute. Specially when a brand new computer has got over 50,000 files. *Checks out the description.*

Hey, hats out to this girl. At least she knows how to check mate you by using simple math. :P

In total, you have 4 point(s). Therefore, I have infected 2 files on your computer. To be able to run these files, you'll first have to play this game again.
Have a nice day,

Gigabyte [Metaphase VX Team]

The girl knows her shit! Say, the game probably infects a key Windows file. You can't get your computer to work correctly without playing again, therefore infecting other files.

*H4x0r h4ts off to her.*

[QueenBee]

Yeah.. now I wanna see the hot girl

[denial]

haku, what she does is hot... sexual interest is sometimes more that physical things .. doesn't matter how she looks .. I would sleep with her .. ... well ... if she would sleep with me .. yeah ..only read about her news since the first .NET virus last time .. never seen her picture .. but I think she's cute.

I think they told her real name before .. I was just reading .. not concern much .. but there is another lady in ..umm.. US.. . she use "Isabella" .. .just lately ...umm.. cable modem hacking .. she wrote the program .. umm.. very interesting ..that its possible to over write your cable modem firmware. Looks like they going to do it .. from internet... for research purpose of course ..

So .. you have Gigabyte's picture?


QueenBee, thank you .. a new thread would be nice .. "Learning to design website with Queenbee" ..so lots of people can learn too .. for you

[denial]

darje, why are you so worry .. let them have fun and be creative .. people like that helps develope/improve computer security .. so those people selling computers and software will take seriously of the security of their product while keeping the "user friendly' enviroment.

For home user patch your computer regularly and update your virus patern and protect your ports with firewall. (which I dont do this myself )

Sometime ago.. even Microsoft stop production and development for 6 month (I think) just to focus on security issue in their software..and look serious into the security of thier software .. I think it was before they lauch the .NET. But yeah .. those are not easy.

[haku]

Originally posted by denial
doesn't matter how she looks .. I would sleep with her

Haha I thought only some men spoke like that. She could be one huge ugly slimy nerd you know.

[QueenBee]

what she does is hot... sexual interest is sometimes more that physical things ..

Aah golden words, Denial. For you for being so intelligent and passionate:

haku, bahh.. Unfair stereotypes.. How do you define a nerd? Come on.. For you she might be ugly but for others she could be beautiful. Hehe.

I'll stop preaching now.

Denial, sure I will fix a thread.. no problem. It might take time though, I need to figure out what I should post and how to explain in the easiest way.